Spiritual Growth/
Repentance and Forgiveness

In excommunication, Dr. John MacArthur writes, “the idea is not merely to punish the offender, or to shun him completely, but to remove him as a detrimental influence from the fellowship of the church, and then to regard him as ...Read More

Lack of forgiveness, we learn in today’s passage, may prove a lack of faith. No matter how hard it may be to forgive others, we simply cannot call ourselves followers of Christ if we do not forgive those who ...Read More

One of the more neglected tools that can help us grow in our holiness is the confession of sins one to another (James 5:16). It can be difficult to admit to other people that we have sinned, but loving ...Read More

“I can never forgive him” is commonly found on the lips of those who have been sinned against, especially when the violation is heinous. Some of us may feel like we can never pardon a particular individual even if we ...Read More

Repentance entails confessing one’s sin to the Lord and if necessary, to an offended person as well. But the reality of repentance (and faith in God) is shown in a good-faith effort to make restitution to those we have ...Read More

The old saying “love the sinner, hate the sin” is true insofar as it reflects our abilities. Our remaining sin makes it impossible for our hatred of the wicked and the violent to be pure and holy like God’s ...Read More

Godly fear makes us work out our salvation by seeking forgiveness in Jesus and living out His pardon in the fruits of a holy life and ministry to others (Phil. 2:12–13). Ungodly fear arrogantly assumes that God’s ...Read More

One of the most important reasons we need godly friends is so that we can discern our guilt and experience the Lord’s forgiveness. Left to ourselves we will often rationalize our sins or quickly suppress guilt feelings, but others ...Read More

When Paul exhorts women to train women, and by implication, men to train men (Tit. 2:1–8), he is not speaking of doctrinal matters as if they are unconnected from everyday life. God wants godly men to teach and ...Read More

We can stand in right relationship to God only if the perfect obedience of Christ is put on our record. If this has happened, the Lord no longer counts sin against us. At the conclusion of our study of repentance ...Read More

As we saw in our study of Psalm 51:4, the wrongs we do are first and foremost sins against the Lord. True repentance realizes our transgressions are heinous because they violate God’s holy character. If you have a ...Read More

In verse 10 of today’s passage, David begs the Lord to “renew a right spirit” within him. The “right” or “steadfast” disposition to love God affects our sin. We may go through extended periods of devotion, but when our ...Read More

The process of repentance can be rough and hurt at first. But remember that the Lord chastises us at times because that is the way He chooses to restore us to full health (Hos. 6:1). If you are crushed ...Read More

God mercifully forgave David when he acknowledged his sin, but this does not mean his transgression had no consequences. David also worshiped the Lord even after these consequences were brought to pass (2 Sam. 12:15b–23), showing that He ...Read More